Hothfield railway station (later Hothfield Halt) was a railway station on the

Maidstone Line The Maidstone line is a railway line between Swanley, Maidstone and Ashford in Kent, England. The line diverges from the Chatham Main Line at Swanley Junction and proceeds down the Darenth valley to Otford junction Retrieved 2012-01-12 (where th ...

at Hothfield,

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. It was situated between

Ashford Ashford may refer to: Places Australia *Ashford, New South Wales *Ashford, South Australia *Electoral district of Ashford, South Australia Ireland *Ashford, County Wicklow *Ashford Castle, County Galway United Kingdom * Ashford, Kent, a town ** ...

and stations. The station opened in 1884; it closed to passengers in 1959 and general freight in 1964 although the sidings continued to be used for deliveries of aggregate traffic.

History

Hothfield station was opened by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway on 1 July 1884, when the railway between and opened. From 1 January 1899, passenger trains ran to and from the former South Eastern Railway's Ashford station. In 1922, weekday passenger services comprised ten

down Down most often refers to: * Down, the relative direction opposed to up * Down (gridiron football), in American/Canadian football, a period when one play takes place * Down feather, a soft bird feather used in bedding and clothing * Downland, a ty ...

and nine up trains. Four trains ran in each direction on Sundays. The station was listed as "Hothfield for Westwell". From 6 January 1935, eleven trains served the station daily. On 25 September 1937, the station was reduced to an unstaffed halt. From 2 July 1939, an hourly service was provided. During the Second World War the station buildings were damaged by enemy action. The station closed to passengers on 2 November 1959, and freight on 22 February 1964, as it was deemed uneconomical to improve the station to cater for electrification of the Maidstone line. but the platforms remained and were used by railway staff until the 1980s. The

signal box In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

at Hothfield remained in use until 28 April 1984, and then served as a

ground frame Mechanical railway signalling installations rely on lever frames for their operation to interlock the signals, track locks and points to allow the safe operation of trains in the area the signals control. Usually located in the signal box, the ...

until 16 February 1985. Freight facilities comprised four sidings on the down side of the station, one of which served a

goods shed A goods shed is a railway building designed for storing goods before or after carriage in a train. A typical goods shed will have a track running through it to allow goods wagons to be unloaded under cover, although sometimes they were built ...

. A crane of 1

ton Ton is the name of any one of several units of measure. It has a long history and has acquired several meanings and uses. Mainly it describes units of weight. Confusion can arise because ''ton'' can mean * the long ton, which is 2,240 pounds ...

15 cwt (1,800 kg) capacity was provided.

References

;Sources * *

External links

Signal diagram for Hothfield
{{Closed stations Kent Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1884 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1959 Disused railway stations in Kent Former London, Chatham and Dover Railway stations Transport in the Borough of Ashford 1884 establishments in England 1959 disestablishments in England